Eatin' Good in the Tarheel State-- Part 2

November Our State Magazine.


BANANA PUDDING-- Hill's Barbecue, Winston-Salem


FRIED CHICKEN-- Strickland Dail Dining and Catering, Snow Hill-- It may have been good, but the place was open when we drove to Greenville for the ECU game today, or even when we returned. I was hoping to check it out. Hard to believe they wouldn't be open on a Saturday and especially on game day with all those hungry Pirate fans driving to Dowdey-Ficklin Stadium.


COUNTRY HAM-- Jarrett House, Dillsboro


MACARONI AND CHEESE-- Simmons Soul Food, Charlotte


CORNBREAD-- Bunn's Barbecue, Windsor


SWEET POTATO PIE-- Bob's Barbecue, Creedmoor

Of all of the places listed, the only one I have eaten at is Grady's in Dudley, but I definitely like all these foods.

Gettin' Mighty Hungry. --RoadDog

Eatin' Good in the Tarheel State

The November issue of North Carolina's Our State had an article on "Our Favorite Foods" by Bob Garner.

It listed a food and then a good place to eat it. Of course, in NC, declaring a "best Place" is tantamount to fighting words, especially when it comes to the subject of barbecue.

Anyway, here's a list:

COLLARDS-- Bum's Restaurant, Ayden

FRIED OKRA-- Miller's Restaurant, Mocksville

CHICKEN AND DUMPLINGS-- Old School Mill's Fresh House, Locust

BARBECUE-- Grady's Barbecue, Dudley (the only place on the list I have eaten at. Great bbq, but prices not listed on the menu board.)

COUNTRY-STYLE STEAK-- Riverside Restaurant, Hillsborough

Gettin' Hungry Typing This. --RoadDog

Thanksgiving 2009-- Part 2

More from my drive to North Carolina.


DAVID WICKLINE'S 66 ROADHOUSE


The reason I endured the drive north of Columbus, Ohio, on I-275 was to visit David Wickline's 66 Roadhouse Bar and Grille which has now been open about seven months. I had read about it on the Yahoo Route 66 E-Mail Group.

David has now written two of the best books on Route 66: "Images of 66 Vols. 1 and 2. Both are loaded with pictures and captions of the road. I would suggest anyone taking a drive along the road should have at least Wickline's Vol. 1 and Jerry McClannahan's "E-Z Guide to Route 66."

The 66 Roadhouse is definitely not one of your cookie-cutter TGIFridays, Buffalo Wild Wings, Applebees. (However, I should add that it wouldn't be bad as a chain,) It is located at the end of a small strip mall of businesses and very close to the interstate.

His is a Route 66 enthusiast's nirvana. Anywhere you look, there are shields and pictures of the road.

More to Come. --RoadDog

Thanksgiving 2009

TRAFFIC JAMS-- I can attest to two really bad traffic jams that I encountered Thursday and Friday. The first was north of Columbus, Ohio, in I-270. Couldn't get on, couldn't get off and couldn't go anywhere.

That was bad, but the one on I-40 by Raleigh was even worse the next rush hour. I was pleased not to have any jams all the way from Winston-Salem to Durham, but then came Raleigh. Starting at RDU Airport and essentially to where US-70 cuts off by Clayton, it was sit and wait most of the time.


McRIBS-- Quite excited by this, but I saw they had them at Gibson City in Illinois and at the McDonald's west of Zanesville, Ohio. Unfortunately, I had already eaten both times. Evidently, McRibs are not all over the US, because those were the only ones that had them of the few places I drove by where I could see the advertising.


NO SNAPPY LUNCH-- Got off the superslab to go through Andy Griffith's hometown, the forerunner of Mayberry, Mt. Airy, North Carolina. The major goal was to get one of those really tasty porkchop sandwiches at Snappy Lunch on the main street next to Floyd's Barbershop. Andy Taylor mentioned going there for lunch on several episodes.

Parked behind the place in the municipal lot and went to it, only to find they closed at 1:14 on Friday. It was 2:15, so NO PORKCHOP SANDWICHES FOR THE DOG!!! So, remember, if you've got a hankerin' for one of those mouthwatering sandwiches, get there early.

I had to settle for Golden Corral. Oh well, I can think of worse places to eat my sorrows.

Some More to Come. --RoadDog

Arrive in Goldsboro, NC

Arrived at Mom's house last night around 7 PM after two days on the road. I'll have to check how many miles I traveled, but am guessing around a thousand.


GAS PRICES

Remained around $2.60 all the way through Indiana and Ohio. About $2.80 in West Virginia, $2.95 on the Turnpike. Gas is always at least 20 cents more expensive in West Virginia. Guess it is a coal thing.

Always cheaper in Wytheville, Va., and that was $2.42. The trick is to fill up in Ohio and get across W. Va. before filling up. $2.50 to $2.62 coming across North Carolina.


DRIZZLE and CLEAR SKIES

At least it wasn't rain, but drizzle off and on all the way through Illinois and continuous through Indiana, the first day. Cleared up in Ohio, thankfully.Great weather all yesterday.

USUAL ROADS

Illinois Highway 47 south from Woodstock to Champaign. I-74 east to Indianapolis. I-70 to Columbus and on to Zanesville on Wednesday. Thursday US-40 Zanesville to Cambridge. Then I-77 south to I-74 in NC.

US-52 from Mt. Airy to Winston-Salem. I-40 east to Raleigh and US-70 to Goldsboro.

Home for the Holidays. --RoadDog

Denison, Iowa, on the Lincoln Highway

Did some more research on the town which has much more than just Donna Reed.

Denison is also the childhood home of CLARENCE DUNCAN CHAMBERLIN (1893-1976), the second man to fly solo across the Atlantic and the first to carry passengers.

He was born in Denison at 1434 2nd Avenue South. This home is listed on the NRHP. His father was E. C. Chamberlin who owned a jewelry store. Clarence graduated from Denison High School and Iowa State University (also on Lincoln Highway) and then served in the Army Air Service in World War I.

In April 1927, along with Bert Acosta, he circled New York City for 51 hours and 11 minutes. he also made the first ship-to-shore flight from a vessel 120 miles out to sea. He made the second transatlantic flight behind Lindbergh, but flew farther to Germany.


STRUCTURES

The Crawford County Courthouse was built in 1904 in the Beaux Arts style.

The Yellow Smoke Park Bridge was built in 1945 and is a bow string pony truss pedestrian bridge located east of town off US-30.

The Park Motel is a well-preserved example of the pre-World War II highway motel and is located where 4th Ave. South goes from one way to two.

Next Time Through, I'll Need to Spend Some More Time Here. --RoadDog

Detroit's Woodward Avenue

The November 12, 2009 Shorpy site had a very detailed view of Detroit's Woodward Avenue where Fort Street joins it.

The Soldier and Sailors Monument is prominently featured along with lots of cars, street cars and pedestrians decked out in city finery. Every male who wasn't in uniform (the photo is circa 1917) wears a hat and suit. Ladies are in dresses and hats as well.

What I like about Shorpy is that you can enlarge the pictures for even closer inspection and it then becomes a real slice right out of history.

There are lots of signs. Some of them:

Hudson's Grows With Detroit
Detroit Creamery Milk Is Health Insurance
Golde Clothes $15
National Clothing $10 $15
Elmer's Suits Furs
Kelly Springfield Tires Made to Make Good
Detroit Opera House Bond's Save $10 Clothes
Henkels Flour Always the Best

www.shorpy.com November 12, 2009 Woodward Avenue 1917

The comments are interesting as well, most saying how the same view today shows how a great US city has fallen.

And US-12 has a Terminus Near Here. --RoadDog

Down Da 66: Sunset Sign Glows Again-- Bridge in Danger--

News of the Road.

1. SUNSET SIGN GLOWS AGAIN-- The Missouri Route 66 Association reports that on November 14th the great old sign at the Sunset Motel in Villa Ridge, outside St. Louis, is once again is lighting the night time sky. Half of the money comes from the Route 66 Corridor Preservation Program.

Last year they did the same with the Donut Drive In sign in St. Louis, near Ted Drewe's.


2. BRIDGE IN DANGER-- It was also reported that Missouri is planning on "swift and complete demolition" of the historical bridge at Times Beach at the Route 66 State Park. It has been condemned as unsafe and instead of repairs, it will come down.

Here's hoping it won't because it will essentially isolate the great museum they have at the park and cut down attendance. Not to mention that this is a bridge that looks like a bridge, not the new ones we have today.

Hitting the Road Tomorrow

The outside Christmas lights and decorations are up so it is time to cruise on down to North Carolina to visit family for Thanksgiving.

Plans call for Il-47 to Champagne, then superslabbin' it to Columbus, Ohio, to get a bite to eat at David Wickline's Route 66 restaurant. Maybe hook up with him, talk old roads, and get him to sign the first "Images of 66."

Hope to hit a few NTN places as well.

Thursday, a drive on the National Road from Zanesville to Cambridge (my favorite stretch) and I-77 to I-40 and US-70 to Goldsboro. If not Thursday, then Friday. You never know where I'll get waylaid by something interesting.

After some great Carolina pit-cooked pulled pork bbq on Saturday, I hope to get out to the ECU-UAB game in Greenville Saturday.

I'll be gone about two weeks.

On the Road Again, Back on the Road Again. --RoadDog

NTN Cruising

This past Saturday, after leaving the Chicago 60s bands concert (New Colony Six, Cryan' Shames, Mauds and Shadows of Knight) at the Mt. Prospect Borders store by the late-great old Randhurst Mall, we went out NTN/Buzztime Cruising to new (to us) sites in the northwest suburbs of Chicago. By the way, the concert was part of the record release party of Bob Stroud's new Rock and Roll Roots Vol. 11 CD with songs like: Little Girl, Candles in the Wind, Summertime Blues, Gimme Gimme Good Lovin', Journey to the Center of the Mind, My Pledge of Love and six others.


DUFFY'S--PALATINE--

Where the old Splinters Sports Bar was. Always thought that was a great name for a sports bar. As in sitting on the beach.

No TVs tuned to NTN, but they were happy to turn one on. No one else playing, but about ten people watching college games. Judging from monthly top ten, they have some players.

Really fine food. I had a 3.4 pound Grand Slam Burger and Liz a Monte Cristo which was almost as good as those at Bennigan's which are THE BEST.


FOX AND HOUND-- ARLINGTON HEIGHTS

NTN Sitefinder has it about two miles from actual location by the Kohls and Buffalo Grove Road. We drove quite a few miles looking for it, stopping for information and finally called the place.

Really nice looking place. However, no TVs tuned to NTN and when we asked a manager, he said they had the kickboxing sport coming on later that night (about FOUR HOURS later) and they weren't going to change any TVs. We thanked him and took our business elsewhere.


FLATLANDERS-- LINCOLNSHIRE

Another goof for NTN sitefinder, but only off a quarter mile, but it still involved some mileage. It is actually on Half Day Road and close to where US-45 and Il-21 split.

It is a Brew Pub and the ceiling in the bar is wooden beamed and three stories high. Again, no NTN on any TV. Don't you think that if a place would spend that much money on the game, they'd have it on at least one TV? However, they did have playmakers out on the bar.

Judging from the leader board, there is not much action. November 14th and only seven players listed on both games. Doubt they will keep it for much longer. Since I was driving, no beer for me even though I really like to try microbrews.

This brings our yearly total of new sites visited this year to 136 and all-time total to 852.

Cruisin' Down the Road and Playing NTN. --RoadDog

Linn-Hebron Cemetery, Illinois

Major Watson, a Revolutionary War veteran, is buried here.

It is located about two miles northwest of the town of Hebron in McHenry County, Illinois and just a few miles from the Wisconsin state line as well.

To get to it, take Illinois Highway 173 west of town, to Johnson Road, go north, and then to Hillside. Actually, I have kept my boat in a barn at a farm very close to the cemetery for the past four years.

Another interesting person buried here is Hebron resident Elmer Bigelow, who won a Medal of Honor in World War II, who died saving his ship. I will also have an entry in my history blog about him.

There is a 2002 website entry devoted to the cemetery with pictures taken just a short time after the place was seriously vandalized with much destruction done to the graves.

In 2007, a referendum was held by the township to cover expenses of the cemetery, estimated at $12,000 a year. The township took over after the cemetery association found itself unable to continue the upkeep. I didn't find out if it passed, but hopefully it did.

How I Get Waylaid. --RoadDog

Revolutionary War Veterans Buried in McHenry and Lake Counties, Illinois-- Part 3

To "Run the Gauntlet" was an Indian custom reserved for prisoners. In it, the prisoner was forced to run down two lines of facing Indians armed with war clubs and tomahawks who attempted to strike them.

I imagine that if you made it through, you were alllowed to live.

Sacketts Harbor is actually spelled Sackets Harbor, just one "t." And, it is located in the western part of the state on Lake Ontario. It was founded by land developed Augustus Sackett in 1801. I'm not sure how the second "t" was dropped. Main Street of town has many 19th century structures and is on the National Register of Historic Places.

It has a protected harbor and was the site of shipbuilding. It was a strategic location and the US Army built fortifications for its protection. Two battles were fought here during the War of 1812. Major Watson was captured at one of these.

I will do an entry on my history blog about the battles.

Next, the Linn-Hebron Cemetery. --RoadDog

Revolutionary War Veterans Buried in Lake and McHenry Counties-- Part 2

A Major Watson was buried in McHenry County in the Linn-Hebron Cemetery, about two miles northwest of Hebron, Illinois, a town that features a water tower with a basketball painted on it honoring the 1952 squad that took the state championship, a real "Hoosiers" story in itself.

Major is the man's actual first name. Too bad he wasn't an officer. "I'd like you to meet Major Major Watson" would have been a good one. I could see that on the "MASH" TV show, Hawkeye would have loved it.

Major Watson was born in Sacketts Harbor, New York November 18th, 1739, so in just two days we'll be celebrating the 272nd anniversary of his birth. He died at age 100 on March 15, 1840, in Walworth County, Wisconsin, and was buried in Illinois. Hebron is just south of Walworth County.

He served under generals George Washington and Lafayette and was at the Battle of Monmouth.

he also served in the War of 1812 and fought at the Battle of Sacketts Harbor, his birthplace. I have to wonder what he thought about that? He was captured and spent time on a British prison ship before being released through the efforts of the president.

I came across some more information in the Tryon Family in America website at www.gratisbooks.com website by Wesley Tryon, that mentioned this Major Watson as having a Tryon relative who was his great grandson.

It came from a private conversation with an old woman from Woodstock, Illinois. Major Watson, as a young man, was captured by the Indians and held prisoner. At one point he was made to run the gauntlet and was later adopted by an Indian chief but escaped with the assistance of a fur trader.

He moved to Wisconsin with his daughter, Clarissa (Watson) Downs.

This man sure had an interesting life, and to have lived to be a hundred back then!!!

I'm definitely going to pay his grave a visit.

More to Come. --RoadDog

Revolutionary War Veterans Buried in Lake and McHenry Counties, Illinois-- Part 1

One of the reasons it takes me so long to do these blogs is that I get sidetracked all the time.

While looking up some extra information on William Wallace in the previous post, I came across a site for Revolutionary War veterans buried in Illinois. Considering that Illinois wasn't a state during the war or even a territory of the new country until after the war, you'd think that there would not be a lot of them buried here, but, there were.

This indicates that there was a major push westward of people moving to the frontier. As we know from history, there was. And many were veterans of the war.

We lived from 1974 to 1992 in Lake County and have been in McHenry County (just to the west, ever since. I had to check out those two counties, and, because of my interest in Route 66 and the Lincoln Highway, of course, I had to look into those counties as well.

I found one each buried in Lake and McHenry counties.

No Wonder. --RoadDog

Springfield's Oak Ridge Cemetery-- Part 5

I guess the next time I go to Springfield, I will have to go over to the cemetery and walk around to look for some of this history, and there sure is a lot of it, above and beyond the Lincoln connection.


SOLDIERS MONUMENT-- erected 1874 and dedicated to 40 officers and enlisted men killed in the Civil War.

JOHN T. STUART-- (1807-1885)-- one of Springfield's first lawyers. Lincoln studied law under him. Served in the Black Hawk War and roomed with Lincoln in Vandalia in 1834. Served two terms as state representative, three terms in US Congress and one term as state senator.

REED C. WADDELL-- (1860-1895)-- folk figure known as "Kid" Waddell, a professional con man with an international reputation. His greatest trick was the Gold Brick Swindle where he passed off bricks plated with gold as solid gold. He earned $250,000 off this over a ten year period.

In the 1890s, he was running this scam in Paris. Five years later, he got into a disagreement with a partner and was shot six times. His body was returned to Springfield. There is an article in Wikipedia about him and how the gold brick scheme worked.

WILLIAM S. WALLACE-- (1802-1867)-- Lincoln family doctor and Mart Todd Lincoln's brother-in-law. Lincoln's son Willie was named after him, William Wallace Lincoln.
Not Finished Yet. --RoadDog